More and more people are reinventing their outdoor spaces into gorgeous gathering areas and cosy rest spots. If you want to use your outdoor areas all year round, take a look at our guide to effective outdoor heating!

Gas heaters are the traditional solution. However, these are highly inefficient, and they tend to consume a lot of gas relative to the amount of heat they put out. They’re also unwieldy, complicated and the heavy gas cannisters they require can be cumbersome to acquire, use and store.

Rustic fire pits are becoming more popular, but these require constant attention and aren’t really practical for more urban areas (particularly apartments with balconies). They’re more an amusement than a reliable source of heating.

If you want to reclaim your outdoor spaces and use them all year round, then our electric IR heaters are the best option. They’re highly efficient, simple to install and require minimal maintenance. They’re also very sleek and discrete when compared to traditional patio heaters, and can be mounted in a range of locations to ensure even coverage.

In particular, our range of bar heaters are specially designed for outdoor use.

IP Ratings And You

The first thing to consider when installing any electric product outside is its IP rating. This handy number will let you see at a glance how resistant your heater is to the elements. The first number tells you how protected it is from dust, while the second is about water. In simple terms, the higher the better!

At a minimum, any outdoor heater should be at least IP44 rated. This will ensure they’re protected from most solid objects larger than 1mm, as well as from splashing water in any direction.

Luckily our Helios range of bar heaters are all rated IP44. They’ll work at their best and will last for much longer if installed with some kind of shelter, but they’re perfectly safe to use outside.

For something a little more durable, our Aurora range of heaters are all rated IP65. This means they’re protected entirely from dust and jets of water, which means they can be installed in more varied locations.

Are IR Heaters Environmentally Friendly?

The environmental impact of any patio heater is an important consideration. IR Heaters are naturally more efficient than most of their counterparts, which makes them a great option for anyone considering this factor.

While they may use electricity (which means by default they are not necessarily carbon neutral), they really make every watt count, and are much more flexible when compared to gas heaters.

This means you can actually easily pair an electric IR heater with renewable sources of energy such as solar panels easily and effectively, which means they can be made to be truly carbon neutral!

As an added bonus, both of our outdoor heater styles are constructed from aluminium, so they can easily be recycled at the end of their lifespans.

How Many Heaters Do I Need?

Each heater we stock comes with a recommended area it can cover based on its wattage. However, this can be impacted by various external factors, such as the ambient temperature, and how sheltered your space is.

IR Heaters use radiant heat, in the exact same way the sun does. Thus, while the heat output itself is not impacted by things like the breeze or by rain, it can still prevent you from properly feeling the benefit- same as how you can still feel chilly on a sunny day if there’s a breeze.

Therefore, when we work out how many heaters you will need, we calculate the volume of the space by multiplying the length of the room by the width, then taking the resultant number and multiplying it by the height.

We then need to work out how many watts you will need. In a poorly insulated room, you’d need 35 watts per mᶾ to ensure a good spread of warmth, so simply take the volume of your room and multiply it by 35.

However, as we’re installing the heater outside, and we need to account for environmental factors and the fact that there will be no insulation, we will need to triple this number to ensure adequate coverage.

Let’s assume you have a 3x3m patio you’d like to heat, and you’re going to mount your heater about 2.4m high. This would give you a volume of 21.6mᶾ. Multiplying this by 35 will give us a required wattage of 756w. If we then triple this number you will get the true required wattage of 2268w.

In this case, a single 2400W Aurora Infrared Bar Heater would be a perfect fit!

You can apply this same formula to any outdoor space easily, giving you the confidence to pick out your perfect outdoor heater!

If you’d like tailored advice on how many heaters your outdoor space might need, or on IR heating in general, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can give our team a call on 0116 321 4124, or send us an email at sales@suryaheating.co.uk.

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